Nasa moon rocket Ares 'could kill astronauts'

A rocket at the centre of Nasa's plans to return to the moon is so "dangerously
flawed" it could kill its crew, agency engineers have claimed.

1:27AM GMT 31 Oct 2008

Concerns over the safety of the Ares craft prompted one engineer to resign, complaining of “catastrophic-level risks”.

The space agency has admitted that in certain conditions Ares could blast off into its own launch tower, and that other potential problems include the rocket vibrating so much that its astronauts could die before they reach orbit.

But Nasa said the problems were "growing pains" and could be fixed before the US goes back to the moon in 2020.

“Nasa has a big reality check coming and I can't begin to guess how it will all turn out,” Jeff Finckenor, a structural design engineer at the Nasa Marshall Space Flight Centre in Alabama, said in a memo to colleagues explaining his departure and quoted in the Times.

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Once perfected, the rocket will be topped with a crew-carrying capsule which is intended to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and on longer-haul trips to the Moon and even to Mars.

But some believe that the programme, which began in 2005, needs to go back to the drawing board.

“With catastrophic-level risks accumulating across the programme and a steadfast refusal to accept reality, it's become clear to me that as bad as things are they are going to have to get a whole lot worse before the pieces can be picked up,” Mr Finckenor said.